“Yes, yes…” The Cosmic Tree Spirit nodded repeatedly before saying, “The roots of the Cosmic Tree are in the Muyun Realm…”
“The Muyun Realm?” Lan Xiaobu interrupted. What was this place?
The Cosmic Tree Spirit didn’t need further prompting and explained, “Beneath our ground lies another world…”
“Isn’t that where the Tianmeng Clan was secretly hiding?” Lan Xiaobu asked, frowning.
The Cosmic Tree Spirit hurriedly clarified, “No, apart from some parts of the Great Cosmos, the Tianmeng Clan hides in irregular underground spaces. These spaces aren’t suitable for long-term stays or cultivation. Staying too long can even erode one’s own laws. The Tianmeng Clan wants to enter the Muyun Realm, but the beings there aren’t accommodating. Not only do they forbid the Tianmeng Clan from entering, but if any Tianmeng appear in the Muyun Realm, they’re killed on sight, no matter the reason.”
Lan Xiaobu finally understood. The place where he and Mo Wuji had rescued Ling Zhuzhen was likely one of those irregular underground spaces in the Great Cosmos. These spaces were fragmented, fluctuating in size, suitable for temporary hiding but not for cultivation, as some areas had clear rules while others were hopelessly vague.
According to the Cosmic Tree Spirit, beneath these irregular spaces was a realm called the Muyun Realm, inhabited by a ferocious race that barred the Tianmeng Clan and hunted them down upon discovery.
The Great Cosmos was indeed complex, with such hidden rule-based spaces underground.
“So you’re saying the Cosmic Tree’s roots are in the Muyun Realm?” Lan Xiaobu asked, though he already believed it. He and Mo Wuji had seen the Cosmic Tree’s roots underground before, though they vanished quickly.
The Cosmic Tree Spirit nodded like a pecking chicken. “I know how to enter the Muyun Realm. Its natural rules are tied to the Cosmic Tree, but I never dared tamper with them…”
Before it could finish, Lan Xiaobu heard a sharp “crack.” His divine sense caught sight of vast branches stretching endlessly, but only branches and leaves were visible—no trunk or roots. The cracking sound came from someone using a treasure to sever the branches.
From the scattered Cosmic Dao Fruits on these branches, Lan Xiaobu guessed they belonged to the Cosmic Tree.
The Cosmic Tree Spirit was stunned, muttering, “How is this possible? Someone’s cutting the Cosmic Tree…”
“Nothing’s impossible. The Cosmic Tree is disrupting the natural rules and tearing apart the cosmic order. It must have angered the Muyun Realm’s inhabitants,” Lan Xiaobu said. His divine sense focused on two cultivators frantically tearing at the branches. Their aura was distinct from human cultivators and definitely not Tianmeng—likely from the Muyun Realm.
The Cosmic Tree’s disruption of the Great Cosmos’s rules had evidently affected the Muyun Realm, prompting its inhabitants to attack and claim parts of the Cosmic Tree. Human and Tianmeng cultivators likely hadn’t reacted this quickly.
No, even if Muyun Realm cultivators wanted to act, they couldn’t have arrived so fast. These two cutting the branches either didn’t use a teleportation array or were already here.
With the Cosmic Tree now exposed, Lan Xiaobu had no patience for the Tree Spirit’s chatter. He sealed it, tossed it back into the Cosmic Dimensional Model, and flashed toward the direction of the extending branches.
Even if the Cosmic Tree was vast, following the branches would eventually lead him to it.
As the Great Cosmos’s natural rules began collapsing, Lan Xiaobu’s Seven Realms Stone moved through the cosmos ten times faster than before. The only danger was the countless spatial rifts and dislocations caused by the collapsing rules. Even the chaos regions were growing disordered. A misstep could trap him in a spatial dislocation, forever cut off from the Great Cosmos.
But the Seven Realms Stone navigated such terrain with ease. With the rules not yet fully collapsed, it dodged rifts and dislocations effortlessly.
A journey that once took a month now took mere days, and the speed was increasing. Lan Xiaobu felt relieved about the Seven Realms World. With the Great Cosmos’s rules breaking, the Tianmeng Clan couldn’t teleport to attack it.
He also believed the Tianmeng Clan had no time to target the Seven Realms World. While the collapsing rules endangered human cultivators, the Tianmeng Clan—and the Muyun Realm inhabitants who emerged from underground—were likely more worried.
The collapse of the Great Cosmos’s rules was now a reality. After initial panic, both human and Tianmeng cultivators came to terms with it.
It was no longer just Muyun Realm cultivators frantically cutting the Cosmic Tree. Human cultivators joined in, and later, Tianmeng cultivators did too. In the face of seizing Cosmic Tree branches, no one bothered fighting each other.
The Cosmic Tree, though perhaps slightly younger than the Great Cosmos, was a primordial treasure, growing alongside the cosmos’s chaos and rules. Each branch was invaluable.
But as a divine object born of the cosmos, the Cosmic Tree couldn’t be cut by ordinary treasures. Eventually, groups collaborated, setting up trapping formations and combining treasures to attack the branches.
Yet within days, the Cosmic Tree began to retaliate. Initially, it ignored the attacks, focusing on eroding the Great Cosmos’s rules. Later, it instinctively fought back.
Anyone cutting its branches was swiftly ensnared by the tree and dragged into its depths, vanishing.
As the rule-defining entity of the Great Cosmos, the Cosmic Tree governed the laws under which 99% of the cosmos’s cultivators practised. Even the strongest cultivators, caught by its rules, were powerless. Whether from the Muyun Realm, human, or Tianmeng, their Great Dao laws were controlled, like having their lifeline gripped.
Still, this didn’t deter the frenzy.
Many knew the Great Cosmos’s rules were collapsing, making survival impossible. Even a single branch could provide a foundation in the vast expanse later. Even studying a branch could elevate one’s Great Dao to great heights. Unable to cut close to the tree, they resorted to distant methods.
Lan Xiaobu, cultivating his own Great Dao, believed cutting the Cosmic Tree would be easy for him. Its rules couldn’t affect his Longevity Laws.
But he didn’t want branches—he wanted the entire Cosmic Tree. Controlling the Seven Realms Stone, he raced to reach it before it fled or vanished, aiming to uproot it entirely.
He had no hesitation about taking the Cosmic Tree. It was the Great Cosmos’s rule-defining tree, and though its impartiality was lost due to the Tree Spirit, Lan Xiaobu didn’t believe the tree lacked its own consciousness.
A month later, he stopped—not because he found the Cosmic Tree’s trunk, but because he saw the Cosmic Heart Shield. He was certain it was the Cosmic Heart Shield.
The surrounding rules were loosening, and the massive shield, meant to protect a realm, was cracking due to the collapsing rules. It could no longer guard a world. But at this point, the shield’s presence was irrelevant—the Tianmeng Clan was too preoccupied to invade the Jicheng World.
Lan Xiaobu was thrilled. Ling Zhuzhen was likely distracted by seizing the Cosmic Tree or entangled elsewhere. Whatever the reason, Ling hadn’t retrieved the Cosmic Heart Shield, and Lan Xiaobu wouldn’t miss this chance.
He rushed forward, tossing out thousands of array flags. In moments, a massive teleportation array enveloped the Cosmic Heart Shield, pulling it into his Longevity Realm. The Jicheng World, once hidden by the shield, was now exposed to divine sense.
A furious roar echoed from afar. Lan Xiaobu ignored it, controlling the Seven Realms Stone to flee swiftly. He was certain Ling Zhuzhen had tampered with his earlier teleportation, and it was suspicious that Ling had used the Cosmic Heart Shield to protect only the Jicheng World. So why be polite?
The Cosmic Heart Shield was a legendary chaos treasure, and Lan Xiaobu, despite all his adventures, had never seen one.
Still, having taken someone’s treasure, even if Ling Zhuzhen suspected him, Lan Xiaobu didn’t want to reveal himself openly.
